The green man is a fake

Jerry Friedman · 17 Jan 2011, 00:31 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: jerry_friedman at yahoo.com (Jerry Friedman)
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:31:14 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) The green man is a fake
In-Reply-To: <4D3372B1.1020001 at gmail.com>
References: <SNT123-W358B848CDF3BEC307BB043CFF50 at phx.gbl>
	<F62DE84A31734BAA9E76586471608470@jill>
	<4D3372B1.1020001 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <427784.4810.qm at web114705.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

> From: Ant?nio Pedro Marques <entonio at gmail.com>

> Gerry Quinn wrote:
> > From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
> >>  The amount of sunlight hitting the area of human skin is not enough
> >>  energty to allow homeothermy

Do we know he's homeothermic?  I suppose when he took one of Severian's
arms to help him escape from the Ascians, Severian might have noticed if
his hand had been cold, though he was drugged.

> >>and movement. And we know that the  Green Man is a walker
> >> through the corridors
> >> of time,  which requires energy approaching full stellar output.
> >> Something is  not right with this guy.
> > 
> > Correct about homeothermy  and movement. As has been noted before, Wolfe
> > is not writing hard SF,  for most authors of which this would be a slight
> > stumbling  block.
> 
> - Who says the green man lives only on photosynthesis

The green man comes pretty close.

"The green color... is only what you call pond scum.  We have altered it until 
it can
live in our blood... the tiny plants live and die, and our bodies feed from them 
and
their dead and require no other nourishment."

(No other nourishment?  No minerals?)

It's hard to think of another energy source algae inside the body could have.

> - Who  says the green man only uses chlorophyll-based photosynthesis (other, 
>parallel  pigments can make use of other wavelengths)

He's "the color of pale jade".  This means he absorbs less visible light than 
current
plants (Ribes?).  If Wolfe had said "blackish jade", it would have been a step 
in the
direction of plausibility.

> - Who says more intense radiation  can't lead to different photosynthetic 
>strategies (heck, even our plants have 3  types)

It would have to be many times more intense.  Mirrors in space?  Another white 
hole or two?

> - Who says photosynthesis is the only path to autotrophy

What else is there?  He doesn't seem adapted to use wind power.  Getting one's 
internal
algae to parasitize plants through what looks (and probably feels) like human 
skin would
be a really, really good trick.

> - Who says  the green man isn't engineered to be more efficient in his storage 
>of  energy
> - Who says the green man isn't engineered to be more efficient in his  usage of 
>energy

There's not enough at 100% efficiency, as Jeff said.

However, I'm imagining a world with many fusion plants powering LEDs that shine 
on
green people as they sleep.  Including shining on them from below through 
transparent
water or air mattresses.

However however, I suspect Wolfe just committed the Sin Against Niven and didn't
think it through.

> (Interestingly, one corollary of your idea is that a  moving, talking plant is 
>an evolutionary  impossibility.)

If by "plant" you mean "something that gets most of its energy from 
photosynthesis on Earth
as it is now", it would have to move a lot less than us.

Jerry Friedman

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